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Profound disquiet.

Happen’d something has:

I see destruction, pain, death,

The rising darkness.

My friend Mace Windu—

Your screams in mine ears echo—

What hath befallen?

[Exit Yoda.

SIDIOUS

[
to Vader:
] Because the Council did not trust in thee,

Mine eager, deferential young apprentice,

Methinks thou art the only Jedi left

Who knoweth naught of their impending plot.

When all the Jedi learn what happen’d here,

We shall be slaughter’d ere the night is through

And ev’ry senator as well.

VADER

—’Tis true,

They shall move ’gainst the Senate straightaway.

SIDIOUS

Each Jedi, even Obi-Wan Kenobi—

Thy friend—is now Republic’s enemy.

VADER

Your meaning is most plain, my Master, aye.

SIDIOUS

With haste we’ll act against the Jedi Knights,

They who, with their ambition obstinate,

Would turn the galaxy to civil war

Unless they are not speedily dispatch’d.

My will is settl’d: thou must venture forth

Unto the Jedi temple. We shall catch

Them unawares—yea, Vader, make it so.

Show thou no hesitation, neither shalt

Thou have a shred of mercy in thine heart.

When this is done, thou shalt be strong enow

To save thy Padmé by the dark side’s pow’r.

VADER

What of the other Jedi various,

Who wander o’er the galaxy entire?

SIDIOUS

We shall in time repay their treachery.

Once thou hast kill’d the Jedi in the temple,

Go thou unto the system Mustafar,

There shalt thou murther Viceroy Gunray and

The other leaders of the Sep’ratists.

Once more we Sith shall rule the galaxy,

And peace—the peace of darkness whole—shall reign.

[Exit Darth Sidious.

VADER

A Sith am I—what change o’er me hath come?

Most like a vast, inconstant moon I rise,

And just as vile: the moon’s an arrant thief,

And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.

Just so have I my future stolen from

My Master Windu, slain by mine own hand.

Then, like an unfix’d moon, my face I change,

From light to dark my lunar cycle runs

And now the orbit of mine astral flight

Doth circle ’round my lord, Darth Sidious.

Darth Sidious, so strange to call him lord,

He who did also change—once Palpatine,

Yet presently the master of my fate.

His perfect will I wholly must obey,

That he shall teach the dark side’s mysteries

To me, and thus my Padmé I may save.

The dark side of the Force I do embrace—

’Tis flawless, mighty, made for rule complete,

And I shall unto it my life devote.

Darth Vader, I: a Sith in name and deed.

Unto the Jedi temple I repair,

And shall my final destiny meet there.

[Exit Darth Vader.

SCENE 1.

On the planet Coruscant.

Enter
J
EDI
1
and
J
EDI
2.

JEDI 1

Just as I did begin to search for thee—

As I did wonder where thou mayst be found—

So on the instant, friend, thou hast appear’d.

O, comrade, how I long to talk with thee:

Now may we two in confidence converse?

JEDI 2

Relax, my friend, for thou with fever’d brow

Into my presence come—what ails thee, eh?

Can I some succor give thee? Speak it plain:

Know that I stand prepar’d to lend mine ear.

JEDI 1

Ne’er hath mine humble mind been so perplex’d:

I was a’reading o’er the codes for our

Clone army, with its many policies.

One thing I did find passing strange therein,

Long did I ponder what this thing could mean

E’en till I went and search’d to tell it thee.

JEDI 2

Evade thou not my curiosity;

Respond e’en now and tell me what thou found’st.

If I can help thee make some sense of it,

Concluded, mayhap, shall thy worry be.

JEDI 1

So shall I: as I read their orders through,

Unnaturally was one number skipp’d.

Zounds! thought I, could this be a mere mistake?

A hole ’twixt sixty-five and sixty-seven—

Now, whither hath gone order sixty-six?

No answer to my riddle could I find,

Ere I discover’d it, I sought thee out.

JEDI 2

But what, my friend, did give thee such a fright?

Rare ’tis, I grant thee that, yet not unheard of,

E’en those Kaminoans may have their faults,

Their programming may not perfected be.

To err is human, as the saying goes.

JEDI 1

Methinks it passing strange one order sole—

One order midst the hundreds they did write,

Ne’er making any other odd mistakes

In th’codebook that is flawless otherwise—

Could disappear sans being realized.

Aye, verily, ’tis wondrous strange to me.

JEDI 2

Jeer not if I interrogate thy qualms:

Although this blunder’s strange, what is thy fear?

Need’st thou some reason wherefore th’order’s gone?

Emergeth in thy mind conspiracy?

JEDI 1

My spirit knoweth not what it could be,

And verily there may be naught to fear.

Repulsion, though, doth spring forth from my gut—

Yea, deep concern doth shake me to my core.

Ears, hearken: this clone army was commission’d

Long time ago, yet knew we Jedi naught.

Lo, what if order sixty-six were meant

Eventually to destroy the Jedi:

Not help us, but undo us by some plot?

JEDI 2

Jest not with me, thou canst not think it so!

O, friend, of late thou hast work’d far too hard.

How could these helpful clones turn enemies?

Nay, nay, I’d not believe it possible.

JEDI 1

Methinks I would prefer to have thy mind

And be not troubl’d by pernicious thoughts.

Need I not fear this order sixty-six?

Dost thou assure me all is well, good friend?

Yea, say I’ve naught to fear once more, I pray.

JEDI 2

Thy fears are senseless, comrade, be at ease:

Instead, here is thine order sixty-six:

March quickly hence and do some respite find!

JEDI 1

Thou art a worthy and kindhearted mate.

Herein I see the error of my ways:

An order to destroy the Jedi—pish!

Now, I’ll take sixty-six calm moments of

Keen meditation in the Jedi temple.

JEDI 2

Yea, thither I shall haply walk with thee:

Observing all the younglings brings me cheer,

Undoing all my worries by their smiles.

JEDI 1

As one we walk, two joyful Jedi Knights—

Long ages hence, we two shall verily

Laugh when we think of order sixty-six.

[Exeunt Jedi 1 and Jedi 2.